The Perils of Tilt

I believe I’m generally pretty good about not tilting, but for whatever reason some stuff was getting under my skin the other night. I felt like I’d been losing a lot of pots to bad luck, and though it’s hard for me to keep accurate track of how I’m doing across several tables over several hours, I felt like I was probably down a few buy-ins. What put me over the edge were these next two hands. They were played against the same player, in the same orbit, and I think they illustrate that I was already playing sub-optimally:

The ironic part is that when I looked at my results for the night, I was actually down less than $2000. In other words, at the time that I first started feeling like things were going badly for me, I was actually still ahead for the session! I wasn’t actually having a losing session at all until I started tilting.

I guess a lot depends on the players, and you are certainly a lot better than me, but most of the above doesn’t look too bad (to me). Maybe give a hint as to what you thought was terrible? (I’m sure you’d love to relive them some more 😉

QQ vs. AA … This I can see as a bad river bet, as I’m not sure what you are getting paid off by and the sizing is weird. Js Ts, _maybe_ other suited Js hands.

KK vs. AA … I guess here it’s the big overraise preflop … but does villian never call with QQ, JJ or AK? Esp. when you factor in the proximity to the previous hand?

AT vs. JJ … Does the raise on the end never happen from KT or a Busted flush draw (esp. 6c8c 8c9c)?

AQ vs. AK … I understand you are probably behind when you do the last call, but you still have to do it no? I understand the reraise makes you pot comitted, so it’s probably better to call (and then fold any K?), but isn’t AQ ahead of his range?

QQ vs. AA, it’s the river bet. His range for making those stupid little 3-bets is heavily weighted towards JJ, KK, and AA. The river check through me, but there’s really not a second best hand to call my bet.

KK vs. AA, yeah it’s the big shove pre-flop. Even if he occasionally has something other than AA when he 4-bets (which at least for this bet sizing is questionable), I don’t think it’s calling a shove. I probably still lose my ass post-flop, but that’s not an excuse to play the hand sub-optimally pre-flop. At least post-flop I give him a chance to make second-best hands.

AT vs. JJ, I think even cold calling the flop raise is bad. The busted draw thing is what I was hoping for when I called, but I think that was just talking myself into a bad decision. I think his flop raise is bigger with the drawing hands you suggest.

AQ vs AK, the call on the end isn’t the problem, it’s 4-betting with the intention of calling that’s a problem. The guy was a little 3-bet happy, but given our positions and all, I should have just folded to the first 3-bet.